Cheeky, eh?

related: Don’t be an ash-hole

Some things no filter can fix.

Cat cuddles on Instagram.

instagram.com

Cat cuddles in reality.

Via reddit.com

Sleeping with your cat on Instagram.

instagram.com

Sleeping with your cat in reality.

Via iruntheinternet.com

---

View Entire List ›

2014 OC Fair Welcomed More Than 1.3 Million Fairgoers, Distributed 435,000 Carnival Plushes & Guests Consumed 1,600 Pounds of Watermelon!

Here are some fun memories that happened this summer at the 2014 OC Fair:

• The Centennial Farm welcomed 19 piglets this year.
• Some 5,600 individual dancers, singers, comedians and performers had a moment to shine on one of the Fair’s free community entertainment stages.
• The National Anthem was proudly sung 35 times during the run of the Fair.
• More than 3.5 tons of clay were molded into beautiful bowls, cups and more during the daily free ceramics demonstrations in Crafters Village.
• More than 10,000 award ribbons were won by Fairgoers for baking, photography, painting, woodworking, quilting, gardening, livestock and on-the-spot contests. This year the Fair offered 2,054 unique competitions for a Fairgoer to showcase their talent.
• And perhaps the best record set:
  • On the four We Care Wednesday donation drives, 67,281 participants donated more than 42 tons of canned food, 55,300 children’s books, 39,400 pounds of clothing and 160,000 school supplies.

The OC Fair will return again next July with all new rides, entertainment and deep-fried goodness.

Beginning tomorrow, I’ll be taking a 50 day trip in partnership with the United Nations, supported by the Secretary General’s MDG Advocacy Group. I’ll be posting portraits and stories from the trip on the blog. We’re calling it a ‘World Tour,’ because the trip will span over 25,000 miles and circumnavigate the globe. But since there are only ten countries on the itinerary, it would be rather foolish to claim that these portraits and stories somehow represent 'the world,’ or humanity as a whole. The point of the trip is not to “say” anything about the world. But rather to visit some faraway places, and listen to as many people as possible. 

In addition to gathering portraits and stories, the purpose of the tour is to raise awareness for the Millennium Development Goals, which are pictured. The MDG’s are eight international development goals that every member state of the UN agreed we should accomplish by the year 2015. Basically: they’re stuff that everyone can agree the world needs. (More info can be found here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). So in addition to telling stories of individuals, we hope this trip may in some way help to inspire a global perspective, while bringing awareness to the challenges that we all need to tackle together. Hope you enjoy.

Lighten up your coffee with this clever glass creamer which looks like one of those restaurant coffee pots. And before you complain that the orange top means “decaf”, just remember that half-and-half has no caffeine either.

• Link
• Price: ~$15

Believe it or not, you’re looking at a bicycle helmet. The Bandbox has a protective and comfortable shell that you can discreetly top off with a variety of interchangeable hat covers (sold separately). Skip to 2:05.

• Hat Tip
• Link
• Price: $40-$80

Huzi’s red oak plywood coffee table doubles as a compact ping pong table. Its surface is coated with a chalkboard surface is great for doodling or keeping score. Measures 29.9″ x 14.2″ x 16.14″ and includes two paddles, a ball and an eraser.

• Hat Tip
• Link
• Price: $499

From Craig Giffen, creator of the picture-based Human Clock and Human Calendar, comes Human Clock.TV. The site tells the time on a minute-by-minute basis using video clips. You can also upload clips for the clock.

• Hat Tip
• Link

“My younger sister died when I was seven. I remember my mom asking if I’d seen her, and we searched the whole house, and discovered her beneath some hurricane shutters. We think that she climbed up on them to play, and they fell down on her. My strongest memory from that day is these two young girls, holding open our front door when the paramedics arrived. I can see them clearly in my memory, but I don’t know who they are. I may have just invented them, but I like to think that they were angels.”

Spotted at a wedding in Texas. Says our submitter, “The food was BBQ. The DJ never made the announcement for seconds.”

 

related: The bride will be accepting gifts

Last Saturday, we took a one-night vacation. As I mentioned, we hadn't traveled without kids since before Anton was born, and we had been craving a romantic getaway. Suddenly, Alex had a great idea: Why not just stay at a hotel in the city?
So, on Saturday morning, we booked a room through the genius app Hotel Tonight, which releases discounted hotel rooms every morning. We were psyched to nab a room at The Standard, while our beloved sitter agreed have a sleepover with the boys at our apartment.
One cool thing about the rooms is that the baths are smack in the middle. Sexy, right?
The views–of both the Hudson River and the Empire State Building—were amazing, and Alex pointed out that the dock beneath our room was where the Titanic would have docked, if it had made it to New York City. Always full of fun facts, that guy, haha.
I had gotten a new dress for the occasion. It was a splurge, so I plan to wear it 382,746,952 times:) I loved that it looked like a wedding dress, since we had stayed at the Standard on our wedding night; and a few people on the street actually asked if we had just gotten married at City Hall.
Next we walked around the neighborhood and stumbled upon a little bar, Entwine. I have no idea how we had missed it while living in the West Village for seven years! The space was dark and charming, with a small bar and back patio.
Alex ordered a Negroni, while I, as always, chose a glass of white wine. Side note: I LOVE when bars describe their wines (especially with descriptors like "chalk and wet stones").
Afterward we walked to a late dinner and got fish, pasta and more wine.
A giant portrait of the chef hung on the wall above us. Awesome.
The next morning, we slept waaaaay in and then read in bed for a while.
And here's the view from the bed! Not bad.
The shower had one of those rain shower heads. Heaven.
We finally rolled out of bed to make it home by noon.
And found this little guy waiting for us in the sink. :)

It was such a great night and felt like a real escape! I'd highly recommend it if you need a quick break (and who doesn't?). Have you ever stayed in a hotel in your town? Any fun vacations coming up? xoxo

P.S. NYC Guide, and how to keep the sparks alive.

Awesome. That's all.

Every time our kiddos wear these patterned clothes, we get a bunch of questions about where they're from. The answer: Winter Water Factory, the Brooklyn-based design company. The clothes are made in America and printed on organic cotton. Aren't they beautiful? We mix them with basics and they just look so, so sweet and are really well made. Anyway, that's all!

P.S. Look at the hats:)

(via)

"If you were to give one piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?"
"Don’t have a third kid."

Today's giveaway is from Lo & Sons, a line of fantastic travel bags made by a mother and her two sons. Our favorite is the Catalina ($120), a roomy canvas travel bag. It comes in five beautiful colors, plus this cute striped version—and has a separate bottom zippered pocket for shoes, toiletries or dirty clothes (clever, right?). It would be great for weekend getaways all year.

Today, they're giving two lucky readers the Catalina bag in any color. Which would you choose? To enter, please visit Lo & Sons and leave a comment below. The winner will be chosen at random tomorrow. Good luck! (Update: The winners have been emailed. Thanks for playing!)

Bonus for all readers: Get 20% off full-priced bags with the code ACUPOFJOSUMMER1, good through the end of July.

Jaime and her husband live in a different state from her in-laws, but she’s not giving him a free pass. “To be honest, he really doesn’t call them as often as he should,” she says.

related: Better late than never?

"What’s your favorite thing about your mother?"
"She loves life more than anyone I’ve ever known. I hope she doesn’t mind me telling you this, but recently she’s had some health problems. And her health got so bad at one point, she called me and said: ‘I was starting to wonder if there was any reason to go on. But then I had the most delicious pear!’"

"I’m a little headstrong at work, which can get me in trouble with my manager. But if my way works just fine, why do we have to do things his way?"

"I did 8.5 years on an attempted murder charge."
"What happened?"
"Some thirty year old dude kept harassing my twelve year old sister. He’d wait outside her school and invite her to parties. So I tried to kill him."

"I’ve been trying to get into a full time orchestra for the past 20 years. I’d guess I’ve been to over 200 auditions. It can be pretty heartbreaking. I tried out for the New York Philharmonic four times. One time I prepared three months for the Los Angeles Philharmonic audition, flew all the way across the country, and they cut me off after twelve seconds. But believe or not, I still have a certain amount of optimism about the process. And I think I’m getting better."

Seriously, go check your windows right now. Because if I had, I’d still have my laptop and all my pictures from the past three years.

Also, if you are the person who broke into my house, rifled through things, stole my laptop, perfume, rad vintage purse and general sense of safety in my home, I am putting the following low-stakes curses upon you:

• I hope you stub your toe every single hour on the hour until you die.
• You will have the highest expectations for every one of your birthdays and they will never pan out, but not for obvious reasons — it’s just that no one is really feeling it. 
• May all your poops be disappointing and/or unsettling.
• You will meet a woman (or man) who is so utterly perfect for you, and s/he will be your everything, and for a week or so they’ll feel the same but deep down something is nagging at them. And you can sense this, but you just push ahead because God, you’ve never felt like this before. But then, out of the blue, s/he will look at you, say simply, “I’m sorry,” and walk out of your life. And what you will never, ever know is that s/he finally realized what the problem was. It will never work out because you resemble her uncle. 

I’ve had to remind myself of this five times today. 

I have been missed the past few weeks but I have had a mental list of all the awesome things I wanted to share with you guys! I am really excited about these things!!!

5. I am absolutely going to get this.
I have had two beta fish in the past (Garfunkel & Uncle Jesse) and while I loved them, I hated cleaning the tank. This is the perfect solution. Also, Ivan and I have been trying to grow our own wheatgrass so that makes this even more perfect.

4. Mortified Nation
Have you guys heard of Mortified? Well, I hadn't but Netflix recommended that I watch this movie and I am so happy that I did. I loved everything about it. It was so funny but also really heartwarming and touching. I would really love to see a live show some day.

3. I have become kind of obsessed with The Detoxinista.
Recently I googled a bunch of recipes and this blog kept popping up. There are so many yummy looking things that are on my list to make. Check it out!

2. This made me laugh so hard that I cried. Hopefully you will find it at least a little funny so you don't think I'm a total weirdo.

1. Dandies.

Holy crap you guys. These things are amazing. We have pretty much eliminated processed food from our diets but I just had to try these marshmallows. I thought they would be kind of 'meh' but I needed to see if I was right...I was totally wrong. They are off the hook. Like, way off the hook. They are so off the hook that they are basically a cordless phone. Side note: I just looked up what the term "off the hook" actually means because I always think of a phone being off the hook when I say it. I knew that wasn't where it came from but I am actually pretty off in my usage of the word. But...the person who wrote the description used "there" instead of "they're" so I'm not too worried. I use it in more of the Buster Bluth way, "Unlimited juice? This party is going to be off the hook!"

Ok, so that's all I have to say today. I hope everyone has a great Friday!

♥elycia